I've written for Forbes since 1987. Over that time I've covered personal finance, taxes, retirement, nonprofits, scandals and other topics that interest me. I just published my debut novel, OFFSIDE: A Mystery. Email me at: wbarrett.forbes@gmail.com .

While there are fitness steps you can take in retirement, you do not have to join a health club or buy a ton of equipment to turn your home into a mini-fitness club. Walking and bicycling will do it. And especially if you don’t need to work for income, you can keep your mind active by getting out in the community and volunteering.

On the theory that it helps to be in a conducive environment, we’ve fashioned a list of what we think are the 25 best cities for an active retirement. Our list spans the country and includes a wide range of city sizes.

We’ve put this together using four factors for which we could get data. One is the annual list published by Bicycling magazine of the top 50 cities for bicycling. While we think cycling is a good thing to do for fitness, it’s not the only thing. Bike paths frequently also can be used by walkers. Moreover, their existence in sufficient mileage suggests a local culture favoring exercise.

Another is the level of volunteerism among the adult population. Amazingly, there’s a website, volunteeringinamerica.org, that calculates this by city as a percentage of all adults.

America generally is safer than it’s been in a long time. But there’s still no good reason to fret about being a crime victim when you’re out and about. So we’re using FBI numbers on violent crime rates to weed out otherwise meritorious places with a little too much excitement on the streets.

Finally, since you want to stay healthy, we took U.S. Census Bureau data on which areas have the most physicians per capita. We consider this a measure both of health-care quality and ease: The more doctors around, the easier it is to get in to see one when needed, and maybe there’s a little price competition, too.

Tops on our list: Madison, Wisc., which, home to the University of Wisconsin, is a college town. It is No. 1 in volunteering (40% of adults), No. 7 in the Bicycling magazine ranking and No. 6 in doctors per capita. (Note: We did not take weather, like Wisconsin’s chilly winters, into consideration.)

No. 2 is Boulder, Colo., another cold university town (the University of Colorado). On the edge of the scenic Rocky Mountains, the town is right behind Madison in volunteering and just ahead of it on the bicycle front.

But big cities are well represented too. Brimming with outdoor opportunities and doctors, and safer than its reputation, New York ranks No. 11. Among the other larger cities on our list are San Francisco; San Jose, Calif; Denver; and Seattle. Despite an above-average crime rate, we also included Washington, D.C., because it fares so well in bicycling, volunteerism and doctors.

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